Portugal's leading coalition partner Socialists have formally announced that they were against their coalition partner's, the Greens' proposal to declare Carnival as a new annual non-working public holiday in Portugal, thus killing the initiative.

Earlier this month (02-Jan-2017), Portugal's National Assembly had announced that it would examine a proposal by governing coalition partner, the Greens, to declare Carnival as a new annual non-working public holiday in Portugal, on January 11, and that the proposal would go on to a formal floor vote (12-Jan-2017).

Originally, the prime minister of Portugal, António Costa, had been reported as being in favor of adding Carnival as a new annual non-working public holiday in Portugal, but eventually, the recent reintroduction of 4 annual non-working public holidays in Portugal (19-Mar-2016, 08-Jan-2016 and 01-Aug-2012), gave him cause to reconsider.

The official Socialist Party communiqué does mention that Carnival would remain an optional public holiday for Portugal's public sector ("A tolerância de ponto que Governo e a administração pública a nível local [podem ou não dar] é suficiente para valorizar esta festividade").